Dead Space: Aftershock
by Bonesaw577
Summary: As I awoke from my fall, I studied my surroundings. Though blurred, I could make out huge towers, blood and bodies all around. I sprang wide awake, feeling around for my extra Plasma Cutter, wondering why these would all be this far underground...
1. Chapter 1: Hostile Environment

Dead Space: Aftershock

AN: I do not own or take credit for the Dead Space game or any characters from the game that may or may not be included in the story.

_Chapter 1: Hostile Environment_

_Igneous 7, the largest planet ever to be cracked and said to be near indestructible, luckily we're in the most monitored section of the galaxy, nothing could go wrong. "By the book," he says. "This operation will go smoothly and without a mess," he says. Well, Captain Peterson, you couldn't have been more wrong. As I sit here in the -3 floor storage room, writing my recent memoir in an attempt to realize just what the hell happened to this operation, I am thinking about her. Whether she is still alive, whether she got out safely and whether I will ever see her again. If only for one last time I could see her face, kiss her lips, hold her in my arms...but I digress. Listen to me; I'm already getting off topic. What went wrong?_

_-Leonard McLeod_

"Get down there and secure that tether!" said Op Field Supervisor Michael Greenly. Igneous 7 is a cold planet, barren and desolate, almost as cold as the North or South Pole on Planet Earth. As we roamed around the tethers in out Mark V Ranger Hovercraft, we noticed that the valve secure mechanisms were off. Battling the extreme cold and wind gusts, both Chief Mechanic Paul Behrens and I walked up to it. There'd be no way to get this trillion-ton piece of rock to go anywhere if the valve secure mechanisms weren't functioning properly. With only the Winterized 11-52b Rigs on our backs and our kinesis modules in our hands, we headed to work securing the switches to hold this big rock into place. How did the mechanisms manage to come undone? They weigh two tonnes alone! There'd be no way to detach it without a kinesis module. Maybe it was one of the other field op teams that forgot to attach it, I count five teams in the immediate vicinity, but it's hard to tell because of this planet's gigantic climate change.

"Wait!" I yell at Paul. He switches off his kinesis module, I do the same. A hole, approximately the size of an average standing man was burrowed right beneath one of the valve secure modules. Maybe that was why the mechanism was disengaged. "I'm going down there!" I shout.

"You can't, regulation states we should call it in. Do you want to get your ass canned?" yelled Paul. "Regulation also states that I do whatever's necessary within reason to complete my job!" I shouted back over the howling wind. "Yea, within reason Len! We need to plan this out!" "Paul, if you give me the charges, I can cave in this hole and then we can continue our job, they don't even have to know about it!" I shouted back, growing increasingly impatient to go back to the USG Isaac. "Fine, but if you get hurt down there, it's your ass..." Paul shouted, with a smile. He handed me the charges and I went into the hole. It was completely quiet down there, except for the excessive howling I could hear in the hole above my head. Finally, no snow, but the tunnel was pitch black. I started to plant the explosives on the bottom section of both walls, bricks of HE-2, enough to level a skyscraper. I placed the wires in line with the contact switch and set them for a timed detonation.

"Hey Len," I heard over my ear piece. "Paul, go." I answered back, just wanting to get the conversation over with. "Keep your mic on, we can communicate. I'm in the Mark V initiating a sub-planetary scan. I'm getting some weird readings, let me know what you find before the timer runs out."

"Sounds great, I've set the timer for ten minutes, but I haven't activated it, I can see the end of the tunnel from here." "Just be careful there Len, don't want you falling down any holes." "Copy that." I started my trek through the man-sized tunnel, wielding my "weaponized" Plasma Cutter with my flashlight turned up high, as it was absolutely pitch black down here. Who knows what's down here, maybe telling the regulation committee was a better course of action. Why the hell was there a tunnel burrowed right underneath our gravity tether? Wouldn't the engineers have noticed? "Len, I'm getting some weird geographical readings and seismic disturbances right in front of you, do you see anything?" asked Paul. "No Paul, I can't see a goddamn th-"

The last thing I felt were my toes slip off the edge of a large cliff face. Going by pure instinct now, I lashed my hand out at the ledge and to my extreme relief, I caught it. As I hung on with both hands, I watched the fading light of the flashlight on my Plasma Cutter as it hurtled down into complete darkness. I could feel my hands start to sweat and my arms start to get tired. I started panting, going in that steady heavy breathing, my heart pounding in my eardrums, blocking out all other sounds. I flipped my leg back on to the edge and finally boosted myself back up on to the edge and flopped down, exhausted, my Rig scraping against the rocks on the ground.

"Hey Paul, I found the source of your readings."

"Yea?"

"Yea, about a two hundred to a two hundred and fifty foot drop right in front of me. I almost lost it."

"Are you alright? Jesus, I told you! I told you not to go down there!"

"I know, alright. But I'm ok, this is one huge pit. I can't even see to the other side," I said, turning my head to try and look at the other side.

"Jesus, I don't think the HE-2 is gonna cut it."

"I don't think so either; we'd need a whole truck load of it to even cave in one section."

"Hey Len, did you set that timer..."

"No...I left it on standby..."

"The timer reads...wait...23...22...21 SECONDS! Len, get the hell out of there! NOW!" Paul screamed, and I didn't waste any time. I sprang to my feet and bolted for the hole. "Len, wait! The timer...it's going faster! It's at 10 seconds already! I'm sorry Len, there's nothing I can do..."

Rin...

It can't end like this...

I love you...

I turned around and ran as fast as I could for the cliff. I couldn't see the edge, but that didn't matter. Just before my feet left the edge, I could hear the faint last words of Paul Behrens, "Goodbye..."

_To be continued..._

AN: Cliffhanger, quite literally! You may be wondering why I am using names from Vocaloid for those of you who know who Len and Rin Kagamine are. It's because my girlfriend is my Rin and I'm her Len. =3

But anyways, please review and enjoy my future chapters!


	2. Chapter 2: The Darkness

Dead Space: Aftershock

Disclaimer: I do not own Dead Space.

AN: Sorry it took a long time to write this. I've been caught up in school work and I haven't really been paying any attention to my writing...

_Chapter 2: The Darkness_

_What I stupid decision I made, there was no reason for me to travel down there. What else did I expect to happen? What did I expect to find? What did I expect to accomplish? I guess it was all just hype, expectations and curiosity that killed the cat. My decisions caused the grief and terror of every single person that was working above. The ensuing infestation was no different, a mangled haze of blurry images, frightening screams and that sense of helplessness and guilt; the demons of my mind. Already I'm starting to lose grasp of the very images that torture me yet keep me connected to the reality I am now faced with. I can hear something outside the door. There's no way I'm going to open the door. I just heard her voice. It must be her! To those reading this, I'll leave this entry in the storage room in case you find it. If I'm not back, presume I'm dead._

_-Leonard McLeod_

-9.8 m/s₂...

I could feel myself free fall for a few seconds and then land on something sharp. Perhaps it was another ledge I fell on? I felt myself start to slip off this ledge also so I started to claw at the rough rock to try and stop myself...but to no avail. My hands started to sweat and let go soon after, sending me hurtling down the pitch black tunnel once again. I hit the rocky surface once more and felt the ground start to slowly curve and I started to roll downwards. The dizziness and nausea started to have an effect on my head as the curve finally started to become level.

BOOM!

I hit something, something that felt like sheets of metal and glass. I couldn't stand; shock, followed by the nausea was enough to make me vomit and I sat against the cool metal which I could feel even through my Rig. Finally I had enough energy to pick myself up off the ground which was jagged and rough. I checked for broken bones...there were none, just a couple of big bruises and some scratches by my guess as it was so black down there, you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. Who knows where my Plasma Cutter landed...but then I heard a faint sound, a small cracking sound. Or maybe the sound was just far away, up above perhaps from that detonation.

Oh my God, that's right! The detonation! Paul! I wonder if he's up there trying to clean up the mess, maybe telling the Op Field Supervisor what happened to me.

"Paul..." I said into my mic. Nothing but static. "Paul? Can you read?" I said. "Paul? CAN YOU READ ME PAUL? ANSWER ME!" I yelled. That's when I looked up and saw it.

I could see a red dot, but not just any dot; it was the dot that I had caused. It was the aftermath of the explosion. Then, there was light. The ceiling, I presume, of the entire cavern which was roughly 150 feet above was...cracking!

The split started from the red dot and started to stretch and snake its way in the shape of a spider's web across the entire surface of the ceiling. The first segment, about the size of a two story house, became dislodged and started falling toward me. Along with the sounds of falling rocks also came the sound of screams. From across the cavern, I could see the huge piece falling, along with my partners, the people I work with and their machines falling with it. Light filled a small portion of the tunnel and I could see that what I hit while rolling down here were mining vehicles! This planet already had people on it! This was a mine shaft! The rock hit the tunnel floor with such tremendous force that I was blown back, scraps of metal screeched and clanged, glass shattered and crumbled and the screams were silenced.

_Impossible, there she is. She's standing right there!_

_No, no. That's your mind playing tricks on you._

_No, she's calling me over to her..._

_Don't go over there..._

_But she's my girlfriend! She'll be crushed!_

_Another chunk is breaking off!_

_I'll get there in time..._

_You doubt yourself..._

The next chunk of the ceiling, this time about the size of an apartment building, was hurtling down, straight toward the hazy form of my girlfriend...how did she get down here?

"RIN! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY! RUN!"

She said nothing, no expression on her face; she just stood there laughing...

What the hell is going on?

I'll never make it now, that monstrous sized rock is too close, but at least we'll go out together.

I can hear the rock start to close in, I reach out my hand to grab a hold of Rin but I can't grab her. I look into her eyes, but she's not there! Where did she go all of a sudden?

The ground beneath my feet starts to rumble and shake and then it's complete darkness. I look up to see the rock hurtling down and then a huge cloud of dirt and debris as I continue to fall down a huge hole that opened up right under my feet. The hole turned into a sort of slide with many twists and turns, going painfully fast. A couple of turns later and I hit a rock wall, bursting through it and landing on a metal grate.

Where the hell was I now? As I awoke from my fall, I studied my surroundings. Though blurred, I could make out huge towers, blood and bodies all around. I sprang wide awake, feeling around for my extra Plasma Cutter, wondering why these would all be this far underground...

Even though I had no Plasma Cutter with me, that reflex, the instant reaction to my surrounds made me search for it. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears until I finally calmed myself. The towers looked familiar, like I had seen them before...that's because they were reactors! Reactors for what, what were these monstrous assemblies powering all the way down here?

"Len...Len, -re yo- ... there?"

"Paul? Paul, is that you?"

"Ye- are you alright?"

"I'm fine! I fell down a hole and I don't know where I am though. I'm pretty far underground, I know that. What's the status up there? Everything is going to shit!"

"Le- I can't he- -ou too well...-here a- -ou?"

"I don't know! There are these huge reactors all around me and I'm standing on some kind of man-made platform. There must have been some sort of mining operation-"

"Le- ge- -t of the-! Yo- are on the UMC Foxtrot! Ther- was a Necromor—infest—ion there! Ge- o-..."

_Underground Mining Corporation's Subterranean Mining Ship Foxtrot._

_The underground disaster that happened years ago..._

_And we're right in the middle of it._

_The authorities said they cleaned the problem up though..._

_Yea, by burying it._

_Now I'm buried with it...and the secret will die with me. _


End file.
